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"Go ahead," said Master Rufus "Get in"

Aaron scra out his hand to help Call inside Resentfully, Call took it Ta a little nervous herself As soon as she was settled, Master Rufus stepped into the boat

"This is thethe underground rivers Until you can navigate, I will take you through the caves Eventually, each of you will learn the paths and how to coax the water to take you where you want to go"

Master Rufus leaned over the side of the boat and whispered to the water There was a soft ripple across the surface, as if the wind had stirred it, even though there was no wind underground

Aaron leaned forward to ask another question, but all at once, the boat began to move and he fell back into his seat

Once, when Call had been a lot younger, his father had taken hi park with rides that started like this He’d cried through all of them, totally terrified, despite the cheerfulpuppets And those had been rides This was real Call kept thinking about bats and sharp rocks and how, sometimes, in caves, there were cliffs and holes that dropped down like ato be able to avoid stuff like that? Hoere they going to know if they were going the right way in the dark?

The boat cut through the water, into darkness It was the darkest darkness Call had ever experienced He couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face His stolad it wasn’t just him as freaked out

Then, all around the life They passed into a rooreen ht where the prow of the boat touched it; when Aaron dragged his hand through the river, it lit around his fingers, too He flicked water into the air and it transformed into a cascade of sparks "Cool," Aaron breathed

It was kind of cool Call started to relax as the boat slipped silently through the gloater They passed walls of rock striped in dozens of colors, and roo tendrils in the river Then they would slide again into a dark tunnel and ee into a new stone chamber where quartz stalactites sparkled like knife blades, or where the stone seerow naturally into the shapes of curved benches, even tables -- they passed two silent Masters in one chah the air "Got you!" said one of thee theh it were being steered by some invisible hand, the boat docked itself near a sently in place

Aaron was out of the boat first, followed by Tamara, and then Call Aaron reached out a hand to help hinored it He used his ar aardly For ato fall backward into the river, e hand cla hi hie expression

"I don’t need your help," Call said, startled